Saturday, April 10, 2010

Utah's next bishop could be gay priest


From Salt Lake-

Utah could become only the third Episcopal diocese with an openly gay bishop.

The Rev. Michael L. Barlowe -- who married his partner, the Rev. Paul Burrows, in San Francisco in 2008, just before the fractious Proposition 8 vote banning gay marriage -- is one of four finalists to replace retiring Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish.

Reflecting the Utah diocese's diversity, the other three candidates are: the Rev. Juan A. Quevedo-Bosch, a Cuban-born rector in New York; the Rev. Mary C. Sulerud, who helps train new priests in Washington, D.C.; and the Rev. Scott B. Hayashi, who once pastored a church in Ogden but now ministers in Chicago.

"What is unique about all four of these candidates is that they have worked within diocesan offices as well as in parish ministry," said Ric Tanner, president of the Utah church's Standing Committee, which advises the bishop. "It is a little unusual but marvelous."

Each of the candidates is "immediately engaging," Tanner said. "We felt that any one of them would help us draw together as a church family, given the challenges of the diocese's great geographic separation and cultural diversity, between downtown Salt Lake City and Native American parishes on Utah's southern border."

More here-

http://www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_14855408

No comments: